Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- After participating in a two-week sexual education program designed and implemented by an academic medical center, more middle-school students said they would hold off on having sex for the first time, Texas researchers report.

"Involvement by the medical profession can assure medically correct content, appropriate research outcomes, and enhanced quality of medical information in this important area of adolescent health," Dr. Patricia J. Sulak of the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center College of Medicine in Temple and colleagues note in a report.

School officials in Temple had approached health care professionals at the medical school for assistance in developing a sex education program for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Parents and school officials wanted to emphasize postponing sexual activity, so the program focused on consequences of teen sex, as well as "skill building, character building, and refusal skills," Sulak and her team point out in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Students who were considering having sex were "encouraged" to meet with a health care professional.

A total of 26,125 students completed surveys before the program, while 24,550 filled out identical surveys afterwards. Students in all grades showed an improvement in their knowledge, on average, after the course.

Before the sex education program, 84 percent of students said they would delay having sex until after high school. This figure rose to nearly 87 percent after the program.

The biggest effect was seen in the percentage of kids who said they wouldn't have sex until after marriage; before the program, about 60 percent said they planned to remain virgins until they married, while nearly 71 percent said they would after the program.

Other factors associated with planning to delay sex included attending religious services and watching two hours or less of television on school nights. Students whose original parents were still married were also more likely to report that they would wait to have sex.

Students who rated themselves as "less than C" students were more likely to think that teens should "have sex whenever they want" and also fared worse on knowledge tests after the program.


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Do You think Sex Ed will delay kids?

Message edited 7/21/2006 9:58:43 AM.

Re: Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

No- I think adolescents have too much of a "that can't happen to me" attitude, so they won't be too deterred.

Also, working in an inner city school, I see a lot of "live for today" attitudes as well- too many kids in my school have seen others' lives end abruptly due to violence. So they figure, why wait for things?

Re: Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

I do believe that to a certain degree "education is power". However, many of today's teens have an "invincibility" attitude, so I am not sure how much they would be deterred.

I will say, for Career Day one of the speakers assigned to me was a Riker's Island guard. This guy was awesome with my students - pretty much told them how it was, no sugar coating. I did notice a distinct improvement in the behavior of that class the following week or so.

Re: Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

Re: Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

Re: Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

I just had to present about this topic for one of my grad classes! Instances of pregnancy and sexual activity actually rose after sex ed programs that taught safe sex AND abstinence...After only abstinence-based programs (combined with parental involvement) rates of sex went down.

Basically non-directive teaching can never be non-directive, so teaching safe sex and abstinence always leads kids believing that safe sex is...well, safe...

Re: Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

Re: Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

ROFL I remember HS and carrying around a d*mn 10lb sack of potatos to show us how hard caring for a kid was and it did not deter any of my friends.
Sex Ed at my school was a total joke.

Re: Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

I don't necessarily think it will delay it, but it could help prevent them from catching diseases or getting pregnant.

Re: Sex education may get adolescents to delay sex

Message edited 7/21/2006 11:34:57 AM.